ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605200051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MONROEVILLE, PA.
SOURCE: NIKI KAPSAMBELIS ASSOCIATED PRESS
NOTE: Below
INVENTORS OFFER EVERYTHING from the practical to the ridiculous - though most sound like the latter.
You're out on the dairy farm and a crisis arises: Bossy has fallen, and she can't get up.
Australian veterinarian and inventor John Steinfort has a solution: the Cow Jack, a steel frame that can support up to 40 percent of a bovine's weight. As the cow is braced, its muscles can be rehabilitated.
``It gives the animal encouragement, because they're actually standing,'' said Steinfort, who has sold about 50 prototypes in Australia at $800 apiece.
The Cow Jack was one of about 1,500 products on display Thursday at INPEX, the Invention-New Product Exposition held annually in this Pittsburgh suburb since 1982.
Billed as the world's largest trade show for inventors, the convention attracts would-be Thomas Edisons offering everything from the practical to the ridiculous.
Peter Michalos, an eye surgeon from Manhattan, demonstrated his On Target Eye Drop Delivery System - a set of black wraparound goggles designed to help squeamish patients administer their own eyedrops. A bottle can be screwed to the middle of each lens, and when the bottle is squeezed, the drop goes through a pinhole and into the eye.
``With this, you can never poke yourself in the eye,'' Michalos said. ``And the other thing is, because it's dark, you never see the drop coming.''
Stephanie Owens, a home health aide from Bradenton, Fla., has always been annoyed by men who leave the toilet seat up. So she invented the Happy Hopper seat alarm, a vinyl-covered, postage-stamp-size alarm shaped like a smiley face. When an offender leaves the toilet seat up, it plays a tune politely reminding him to put it down.
``You could get different tunes - the `Bonanza' theme maybe, or `Let Me Call You Sweetheart,''' she said.
The convention has long been a testing ground for a mind-boggling array of inventions, with names like the Beer-O-Meter (a gauge for empty kegs), the Portable Snowman Maker and the Catch-It Cap (a baseball cap mounted with a glove for catching pop flies).
Most vendors are looking for manufacturers and distributors. But they usually don't say they're aiming to become millionaires - oh no, they're out to improve the world.
Owens said it would be nice to get money for her toilet seat alarm, but her real purpose is to spare thoughtless bachelors embarrassment.
Magdalena Herring, who displayed her X-rated game of ``Pin the Tail on the Donkey,'' says she hopes to help people suffering from sexual dysfunction.
Says Michalos: ``We're looking for distributors, because we have day jobs. thing.''
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Hate to treat yourself with eyedrops? Try Dr.by CNBPeter Michalos' On Target Eye Drop Delivery System. 2. Stephanie
Owens' Happy Hopper seat alarm plays a tune when an offender leaves
the toilet seat up, politely reminding him to put
it down. color.